This project seeks to increase kids’ engagement with math learning in connection with Cognitive Tutors using support for help seeking and collaborative problem solving.
The great bulk of currently available "online courses" are no more than inconvenient textbooks. Our project is an ongoing effort to make online courseware that takes advantage of what the computer does well - interactive simulations, virtual laboratories, and allowing instant access to vast arrays of information and data.
The Active Learning and Problem Solving (ALPS) project involves constructing and evaluating educational technology that emulates human tutors by integrating a state-of-the art educational technology called Cognitive Tutors with a innovative interactive questioning environment called Synthetic Interviews to produce an active learning environment that rivals the effectiveness of human tutors.
We are developing a tool called Alice that allows novice programmers to author interactive 3D virtual worlds. By identifying the unnecessary challenges of learning to program (such as syntax) and removing these challenges, we hope to make the fundamentals of programming accessible to middle school children.
